Fram Museum

Dedicated to Norwegian exploration of the polar regions, the Fram Museum was established in 1936 and houses two enormous ships, the Fram and Gjøa. Giving a broad history of arctic exploration, the museum also focuses more closely on the accomplishments of three Norwegians—Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen—who played significant roles in the expeditions aboard the Fram and Gjøa, the latter of which was the first ship to traverse the Northwest Passage.

The Fram, which means ‘straight forward,’ has sailed the farthest north and south of any ship in the world, and despite knowing of the destructive nature of Arctic ice, was constructed of wood (the logic: if it worked for the Vikings, it could work again). In its three-year-long first expedition to the North Pole, the Fram became stuck in ice and was unable to complete the voyage, but in typical Norwegian fashion, Nansen and a member of his crew disembarked and continued by skis (unfortunately, they were forced to turn back and did not reach the pole). The ship was later used in another journey to the southern polar region and was the first to ever successfully reach the South Pole.